The present invention relates to the field of telephony devices and, more particularly, to using a slide based technique for inputting a sequence of numbers.
Touch sensitive interfaces, such as touch sensitive displays are becoming more prevalent in many devices. Mobile telephony devices, for example, have begun incorporating touch sensitive displays. These displays are especially convenient for space constrained, multifunction mobile devices, as they can be reconfigured dynamically, as opposed to a fixed physical dial pad where the dial pad buttons consume device space even when the mobile device is operating in modes where the dial pad is extraneous. Touch sensitive interfaces are also becoming increasingly prevalent in kiosk devices and surface based computing devices, often due to the ability to interact in a dynamically configurable fashion.
Despite numerous advances in user input technologies and advances in other areas of input (specifically multi-touch technologies), an act of inputting numbers, such as phone numbers, has undergone very few changes. Specifically, number pads are a common input methodology, whether the number pads are implemented as a number of arranged physical buttons or implemented dynamically within touch-sensitive displays. When implemented in a touch-sensitive display each individual number from the virtual number pad must be tapped in a sequence to enter a set of numbers. This methodology is often error prone, as it is easy for a user to inadvertently press a touch-screen portion reserved for a non-desired digit. This problem is exasperated on relatively small screen surface spaces, since the closer a set of touchable numbers are to each other, the more likely an occurrence of erroneous presses. Further still, touching a numeric sequence on a keypad (e.g., dialing a phone number) requires a user to focus intently upon a touch pad, which can be dangerous when conducted concurrently with other activities, such as driving. Additionally, security considerations exist with this methodology, as it is easy for an observer to determine a user entered numeric sequence, such as a personal identification number (PIN), based upon observable finger placement and movement.